umask

- get or set the file mode creation mask

Synopsis

/usr/bin/umask [-S] [mask]

sh

umask [ooo]

csh

umask [ooo]

ksh88

umask [-S] [mask]

ksh

umask [-S] [mask]

Description

The umask utility sets the file mode creation mask of the current
shell execution environment to the value specified by the mask operand. This
mask affects the initial value of the file permission bits of subsequently
created files. If umask is called in a subshell or separate utility
execution environment, such as one of the following:

(umask 002)
nohup umask ...
find . -exec umask ...

it does not affect the file mode creation mask of the caller's
environment. For this reason, the /usr/bin/umask utility cannot be used to change
the umask in an ongoing session. Its usefulness is limited to checking
the caller's umask. To change the umask of an ongoing session you must
use one of the shell builtins.

If the mask operand is not specified, the umask utility writes the
value of the invoking process's file mode creation mask to standard output.

sh

The user file-creation mode mask is set to ooo. The three octal
digits refer to read/write/execute permissions for owner, group, and other, respectively (see
chmod(1), chmod(2), and umask(2)). The value of each specified digit is subtracted
from the corresponding ``digit'' specified by the system for the creation of
a file (see creat(2)). For example, umask022 removes write permission for group
and other. Files (and directories) normally created with mode 777 become mode
755. Files (and directories) created with mode 666 become mode 644).

If ooo is omitted, the current value of the mask is printed.

umask is recognized and executed by the shell.

umask can be included in the user's .profile (see profile(4)) and invoked at login to automatically set the user's permissions on files or directories created.

csh

See the description above for the Bourne shell (sh)umask built-in.

ksh88

The user file-creation mask is set to mask. mask can either be
an octal number or a symbolic value as described in chmod(1). If
a symbolic value is given, the new umask value is the complement
of the result of applying mask to the complement of the previous
umask value. If mask is omitted, the current value of the mask is
printed.

ksh

umask sets the file creation mask of the current shell execution environment
to the value specified by the mask operand. This mask affects the
file permission bits of subsequently created files. mask can either be an octal
number or a symbolic value as described in chmod(1). If a symbolic
value is specified, the new file creation mask is the complement of
the result of applying mask to the complement of the current file
creation mask. If mask is not specified, umask writes the value of the
file creation mask for the current process to standard output.

Options

ksh88

The following option is supported for /usr/bin/umask and umask in ksh88:

-S

Produces symbolic output.

The default output style is unspecified, but will be recognized on a
subsequent invocation of umask on the same system as a mask operand
to restore the previous file mode creation mask.

ksh

The following option is supported in ksh:

-S

Causes the file creation mask to be written or treated as a symbolic value rather than an octal number.

Operands

The following operand is supported:

mask

A string specifying the new file mode creation mask. The string is treated in the same way as the mode operand described in the chmod(1) manual page.

For a symbolic_mode value, the new value of the file mode creation mask is the logical complement of the file permission bits portion of the file mode specified by the symbolic_mode string.

In a symbolic_mode value, the permissions op characters + and - are interpreted relative to the current file mode creation mask. + causes the bits for the indicated permissions to be cleared in the mask. - causes the bits of the indicated permissions to be set in the mask.

The interpretation of mode values that specify file mode bits other than the file permission bits is unspecified.

The file mode creation mask is set to the resulting numeric value.

The default output of a prior invocation of umask on the same system with no operand will also be recognized as a mask operand. The use of an operand obtained in this way is not obsolescent, even if it is an octal number.

OUTPUT

When the mask operand is not specified, the umask utility will write
a message to standard output that can later be used as a
umaskmask operand.

where the three values will be combinations of letters from the set
{r,w, x}. The presence of a letter will indicate that the
corresponding bit is clear in the file mode creation mask.

If a mask operand is specified, there will be no output written
to standard output.

Examples

Example 1 Using the umask Command

The examples in this section refer to the /usr/bin/umask utility and the
ksh88 umask builtin.

Either of the commands:

umask a=rx,ug+w
umask 002

sets the mode mask so that subsequently created files have their S_IWOTH
bit cleared.

After setting the mode mask with either of the above commands, the
umask command can be used to write the current value of the
mode mask:

example$ umask
0002

The output format is unspecified, but historical implementations use the obsolescent octal
integer mode format.

example$ umask -S
u=rwx,g=rwx,o=rx

Either of these outputs can be used as the mask operand to
a subsequent invocation of the umask utility.

Assuming the mode mask is set as above, the command:

umask g-w

sets the mode mask so that subsequently created files have their S_IWGRP
and S_IWOTH bits cleared.

The command:

umask –-w

sets the mode mask so that subsequently created files have all their
write bits cleared. Notice that mask operands r, w, x, or anything
beginning with a hyphen (-), must be preceded by – to keep it
from being interpreted as an option.

Environment Variables

See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables that affect the
execution of umask: LANG, LC_ALL, LC_COLLATELC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES, and NLSPATH.

Exit Status

The following exit values are returned:

0

The file mode creation mask was successfully changed, or no mask operand was supplied.